


All that Matters in Snow

by Daretodream66



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Captain America Steve Rogers, M/M, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-27 20:13:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17773487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daretodream66/pseuds/Daretodream66
Summary: Three Valentine's Days for Steve and Bucky.





	All that Matters in Snow

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not a big believer in Valentine's Day, but these guys deserve all of them and for them to be perfect.

1931

Many years ago a young boy, with blond, wispy hair, stood on the porch of another young boy with dark brown curls. They stared at each other, wondering who would blink first.  What each of them didn’t know was that the other had wanted this for so long, that neither would blink in this dangerous game of chicken.  If either of their mother’s had known, they would have yanked them into the house, berating them for this behavior.

The little, blond boy looked down the street, first one way and then the other. The brunette boy did the same.  When they were sure no one would see, the blond leaned in, kissing the brunette quickly.  Leaning away, he smiled.  “That was better than I thought it would be.”

1939

It wasn’t until years later, living in their own apartment that they laughed about how stupid they had been. Now, behind the privacy of a door and curtains pulled across the windows, they still thought kissing the other was the best thing ever.  But this Valentine’s Day was different because this Valentine’s Day, the brunette got down on one knee, pulled a thin gold band from his pocket and looked up at the blond with all the love that had grown through their years together.

“Marry me, Stevie.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “And just how do you plan on pulling this off?  No church is gonna let us get married, Buck.”

“I’m not talkin in a church. I’m talkin right here, right now just the two of us.”  Bucky pulled Steve in, hugging him around the middle from his place on his knee.

“Does that even count?” Steve wasn’t trying to be contrary.

“It will count to me.” Bucky looks up into the face that he’s dreamed about for years, the face that means everything.

Steve pulls away, kneeling down on the floor with Bucky. “But I don’t have a ring for you.”

Bucky grins and pulls a second out of his pocket. “Got’em both at the same time.  Now, will ya or won’t ya, Rogers.”

“Ya damn right I will.” He takes Bucky’s ring, slipping it on his best friend’s finger.  “I promise to always love you.  I promise to honor you all the days of my life.  I promise to stay true to you until I die.  I promise there will be no one but you.  This I promise for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health to be yours for all the days of my life.”

Bucky slips Steve’s ring onto his finger. “I promise to always love you the way I always have.  I promise to honor everything you believe in and most importantly you.  I promise to stay true to you and not even look at anyone else until I die.  I promise all of this through good times and bad times.  I’m yours, Stevie.  Always have been.”

The kiss lingers and when they pull away there are matching swollen lips and heavy panting. “I now pronounce us husbands.”  Steve blushes because they both know what’s supposed to come next, something they’ve never done before, but Bucky grins.

“Don’t look so scared. I talked to a guy near that club by the waterfront.  He told me what to do.”  Steve looks unsure, but follows Bucky into the bedroom.

Later that night, they go into the park, pick a tree and fill out their marriage license.

2019

It’s just a tree. Like so many others in the park, and on this day, covered in snow, it’s more difficult to find.  He persisted though; finding it amongst all the others.  And there…

There carved into the bark, dark against the white of frost are the initials he’s looking for. SGR & JBB 2/14.  They jump out against the surrounding pale flurries.  SGR & JBB 2/14.

It’s true then. Everything she’s been telling him for months.  It’s all true.

He’d really thought she was just telling him a lie, so that he would go to Steve. It’s not a lie.  Everything he’s been searching for is carved into the trunk of a tree.  He couldn’t trust someone else’s word, not after years of being lied to and manipulated.  He had to see it for himself.  He couldn’t trust something this important to the word of someone that he didn’t really know.

He needed to get home.

Home.

Steve.

Running out of the park and across the bridge, he fades into the crowd. He’s just another face.  He can be anyone here.  No one knows his face.  No one cares.  That’s not true, someone cares.  The only someone that ever mattered.

Pulling out the burner phone that she gave him, he looks at the number. The only number programmed in.  He looks up and up, pressing the number, he listens to it ring.  On the second ring, _he_ picks up.  Bucky’s heart seizes at the low rumble that vibrates into his core.  “Hello?”

“Steve?”

There’s no response, each second chips away at his resolve.

“Where are you?”

He lets himself breathe again. “Downstairs.”

“Don’t move.”

Like he would leave knowing what he knows now. She hadn’t lied to him just to get him to do what she wanted.  The door flies open and Steve is there.  He’s even more beautiful than the last time Bucky saw him.  Steve comes to him, but doesn’t touch.  “Natalia told me, but I couldn’t let myself believe her.”  He shuffles from foot to foot.  “Is it true?”

Steve pulls his dog tags out of his shirt and lets them fall against his chest. “February 14, 1939.  You’ve been my husband, my only, for 80 years.”

The scuffed and scarred gold band lays against the tarnished tags. “I need a new one.  Don’t know what happened to the other.”

Steve finally, finally comes to him, pulling him into an embrace 74 years in the making. “I’ll buy you any ring you want if you’ll just stop running from me.”

Bucky snuggles into the broad chest of his husband. “I’m home now.”


End file.
